Rated PG-13 for sexual content including innuendoes. Running
time: 87 minutes. One star out of four.

It's bad enough that the usually enjoyable Sandra Bullock has
found a way to star in not one but two flat romantic comedies this
summer, between "The Proposal” in June and now "All About Steve.”
But what's truly baffling — disheartening, really — is the fact
that this latest one was written by a woman.

Kim Barker came up with the script in which Bullock's character,
a crossword puzzle writer named Mary Horowitz, is singularly
annoying from the first moment we meet her. Mary is a goofy,
clingy, hyperactive chatterbox who bores people everywhere she goes
with her arcane bits of trivia and long-winded anecdotes. She lives
at home with her parents and needs to be fixed up on a blind date
to have even a remote chance at intimate contact with a man. The
film affords her no sympathy for any of these traits.

When Mary finally meets handsome cable-news cameraman Steve
(Bradley Cooper, all blue eyes and blinding teeth), she immediately
throws herself at him. Then she misinterprets a comment he makes in
the frenzy of scurrying away from her as an invitation to join him
on the road covering breaking news, and ends up stalking him across
the country. During her travels, she befriends another woman who
isn't drawn with a whole lot of grace: a full-figured, big-haired
simpleton who doesn't understand Mary's many big words but does
carry delicious snacks as she hangs out wherever the TV cameras
happen to be.

There is nothing about Mary that's even vaguely appealing, but
the feature debut from director Phil Traill makes it obvious we're
meant to find her endearing. This much is clear from the way he
focuses on Mary's signature clothing item — a pair of shiny,
knee-high red boots — early and often, a lazy shorthand to indicate
this person is supposed to be quirky but lovable.

Each time Mary finds Steve, she jumps up and down like a little
girl, then runs toward him and pummels him with affection. It's
actually pretty frightening behavior. Steve, meanwhile, is an
enigma, good-looking but bland. Ostensibly, that's the point — that
he's more of a figment of Mary's idealism than anything else — but
that doesn't make him a terribly compelling character, and it
doesn't make effective use of Cooper's charisma.

Thomas Haden Church provides a couple of laughs as Steve's
self-serious reporter — his absurdly melodramatic live shots are
pretty funny — but his character is also cruel to Mary by stringing
her along and inviting her to join them at each new destination.
(The ubiquitous Ken Jeong plays the crew's exasperated field
producer.) Meanwhile, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Luenell from "Borat” and
Charlyne Yi go to waste in throwaway supporting roles.

Then, just when it seems "All About Steve” couldn't grow any
more insufferable, it turns strangely sentimental, which allows
Mary to make profound observations about life in the form of forced
crossword-puzzle metaphors. Too bad the movie itself doesn't have a
clue.

'Extract'

Rated R for language, sexual references and some drug use.
91 min. Two stars out of four.

Ten years ago, Mike Judge satirized the absurdities of the
workplace experience from the perspective of put-upon employees
with "Office Space.”

It didn't do much when it came out but, as we all know by now,
it became a cult favorite on cable and home video, to the point
where it changed the way you looked at the common stapler.

Now, Judge is back to the daily grind with "Extract,” but this
time the writer-director tells his wacky working tales from the
boss' point of view: that of Jason Bateman's Joel Reynold, owner of
a flavor extract factory.

It's doubtful that this comedy will grab its audience in the
same way, though. Judge's characters are so one-note and their
misadventures so ridiculous that it's hard to get attached to them
or care about how they turn out.

Pretty much everyone in "Extract” is stupid, unlikable,
self-destructive or all of the above — and so there are no real
surprises. Joel is on the verge of selling his company to General
Mills.

At the same time, his nonexistent sex life with his frosty wife
(a thoroughly underused Kristen Wiig) has him pondering an
adulterous fling with a sexy new employee (Mila Kunis), who happens
to be a scheming sociopath.

So his suave bartender friend (an amusing Ben Affleck)
encourages him to hire a gigolo to sleep with her and justify his
own affair.